


There’s no denying it’s you

by dot_the_writer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alcohol, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst and Feels, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M, Metamorphmagus, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 22:23:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dot_the_writer/pseuds/dot_the_writer
Summary: James has always wanted Teddy. Now, just maybe, Teddy wants him too.





	There’s no denying it’s you

**Author's Note:**

> This is such a wonderful fest, and I'm excited to be participating!
> 
> Huge shout-out to [Dexiha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dexiha) ([assassinsdragons.tumblr.com](https://assassinsdragons.tumblr.com/)) for the quick and helpful beta! I'm so glad I can count on you. <3 Any remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> This is my first time working with a non-linear format and I hope y'all enjoy.

Tonight, James becomes bold. He’s tipsy. Not drunk, but pleasantly buzzed. He can feel the alcohol thrumming through his veins, a beat which makes him bold through the haze. Teddy’s sitting too close and James takes the opportunity to rest his hand on Teddy’s thigh.

Teddy turns and looks at James, his eyes hooded.

“James.” His voice holds a warning, a hint of concern.

James just smiles and tightens his grip, running his thumb back and forth against Teddy’s thigh in his muggle jeans. There’s a hole his finger keeps getting caught on.

Teddy spreads his legs fractionally. Neither of them are drunk enough to pretend it’s the alcohol making them act the way they are.

“Jamie, we shouldn’t.”

“Give me one good reason.” James speaks quietly, but leans towards Teddy to be heard over the music in the club. They came out to celebrate James’ twenty-second birthday, and for once, he’s going to get what he bloody wants.

He’s seen the way Teddy’s looked at him for the past year or so, heard rumours that he broke up with his ex because there was someone else he fancied. Maybe it isn’t James, but it’s a risk that James is willing to take.

He slides his hand upward and hears Teddy’s breath hitch over the pounding bass. Teddy brings his hand on top of James’, but he doesn’t try to stop the upward climb.

“James, are you sure?”

“Teddy, it’s always been you. It’s always been you.”

Teddy’s eyes close and a slow smile spreads across his face.

* * *

James was heartbroken watching Teddy leave on the Hogwarts Express. Teddy had been bouncing up and down for the past week, his hair shifting daily between the house colours. Yellow, blue, red, even green, though Harry and Ginny said he wasn’t cunning enough to be a Slytherin.

“Will you write to me?” James’ bottom lip wobbled.

“Sure, kid, of course!”

James sniffed. He could feel the tears coming as Teddy searched the crowd at Platform 9 and ¾ for his friends.

“Hey, Jamie, look at me.” Teddy knelt on the ground in front of James. “I promise, okay? Otherwise I’ll owe you a cauldron full of chocolate frogs.”

James smiled. Teddy would never break a promise.

Teddy hugged Andromeda and the Potter family goodbye, ruffling James’ auburn hair before climbing aboard the train. Then he was gone, and James was left staring at an empty platform. He still remembers the feeling of loneliness.

James rubbed his eyes with his tiny fists and tried not to cry.

It was hard with Teddy gone, but like clockwork, there was a letter a week on the kitchen table when James came downstairs. Sometimes it was only a line or two of Teddy’s loopy handwriting, but that didn’t matter. James kept the letters under his bed in an old Weasleys’ Wheezes tin, taking them out when he missed Teddy too much to breathe.

* * *

He runs his fingers through the short blue strands of hair at the nape of Teddy’s neck and brings Teddy’s head down into a kiss. Their lips meet, gently at first, a quick press. James moans, pulling back slightly.

“Do you believe me now?”

Teddy brings his hands to James’ waist, pulling their hips together. He brings his mouth to James’ ear.

“Maybe you better remind me?”

James is happy to do so – he’s always loved Teddy and he’s more than happy to take the opportunity to show him. He ignores the music, the crowd, focusing solely on Teddy’s lips moving against his own. Teddy brushes his tongue against James’ and James opens his mouth in response. Teddy tastes like cigarette smoke and faintly of whisky; James decides it’s a taste that he’ll never tire of.

For him, it’s always been Teddy. James has been in love with Teddy since before he knew what love was.

Teddy pressed their hips together, crowding James against the dirty club wall, and James realizes that this is what happiness feels like. Teddy’s hair is soft to the touch, his mouth insistent against James’ and his hardness pressing against James’ matching erection.

* * *

James cried when he was sorted Gryffindor – not in the Great Hall, but after he had been led by the Gryffindor prefects back to the common room. He couldn’t say he was surprised – he was the living, breathing embodiment of Gryffindor, after all – but it meant that he wouldn’t share a common room with Teddy.

Not easily dissuaded, James snuck to the Hufflepuff dorms once darkness fell and sat outside until someone came through. His skin was blotchy from crying, but the student let him in and led him to Teddy.

“Jamie, are you okay?” Teddy had given him the nickname when they were little, back when they spent the summers running around at the Burrow, nights spent buried under blankets watching the muggle telly in the Potter’s house.

James shook his head. “I wanted to be sorted with you,” he whispered, aware they had an audience of Hufflepuffs.

Teddy sighed. “Come up to my dorms tonight, okay? You can sleep here, but we need to sneak you back in the morning before you get in trouble.”

James grabbed onto the sleeve of Teddy’s black robe and allowed himself to be led to Teddy’s dorm. They shared the bed, James on one side and Teddy on the other, hands meeting and joining in the middle. They slept in, only waking when the sunlight streamed through the curtains.

James was in trouble with the prefect when he returned to his dorm, but he didn’t care. Teddy always made sure he knew how to get into the Hufflepuff common room, and more often than not, James spent the night curled up with Teddy.

They only had one year of overlap at Hogwarts, and not for the first time, James cursed the age difference between them.

* * *

There’s a sharp tugging at his navel, and before James can think about what’s happening, he and Teddy are popping back into existence in Teddy’s little flat.

Teddy takes care to not separate them as he manoeuvres James’ backward into his bedroom. Their lips only disconnect momentarily as Teddy pushes James back onto the bed, before he climbs on.

James takes the opportunity to break the silence. “Teddy – I love you, I’ve always loved you.” He looks away; he can’t make eye contact and say what he needs to say. “If this doesn’t mean anything to you, if this is nothing more than a shag, then I can’t do this. It’ll hurt too much.”

Teddy runs his hand across James’ cheek, forcing James to look up at him. “Jamie, I’d never hurt you. I want you more than you can imagine – more than I’ve wanted anyone. You were a kid the last time you told me you cared for me like that –” He chuckles at James’ squawk of indignation. “Jamie, you were. I’m older, and I needed to be responsible and make sure you knew what you wanted.”

“I want you.”

“Merlin, Jamie.”

Teddy starts pressing open-mouth kisses down James’ jawline, across his neck.

* * *

At fifteen, while at the Burrow for Sunday dinner, James’ heart broke for the first time. He walked outside to the broom shed, planning to get a Cleansweep before everyone came and took the good ones for the traditional after-dinner Quidditch match, only to stumble upon Teddy and Victoire in the shadows.

Both of them were slightly disheveled and well-snogged, Teddy’s shirt on the ground and love-bites covering Vic’s neck. They flushed and pulled apart when Vic noticed James, but before they could say anything, he ran back inside, forgetting the broom altogether.

Teddy found him a few minutes later, curled up on the floor in their Uncle Ron’s old room.

“I’m sorry you had to see us,” Teddy whispered, sitting down next to James.

His hair was brown, his natural state. James was an expert in reading Teddy based on his hair colour: brown meant he was contemplative, honest.

James shrugged one shoulder, resting his head on Teddy’s shoulder.

“S’okay, not like I didn’t know you were dating.”

“Still, different to have to see it for yourself. Must be weird, stumbling upon someone in your family like that.”

James could feel the tears coming in, and he closed his eyes. His voice still trembled as he spoke. “That wasn’t it.”

Teddy, bless him, noticed how tense James’ had become. “What was it? Jamie, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

James took a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter; just drop it.”

“Okay,” Teddy said, his voice soft. “If you really want me to.”

* * *

Lying there, with Teddy over him, James can’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.

Teddy wants this. Teddy cares for him.

They strip their shirts, throwing them towards the end of the bed to be rediscovered later. Slowly, their jeans come off, leaving them both in only their pants. James runs his hands across Teddy’s chest, touching the skin that has so long been denied to him.

Teddy looks at James with reverence. “You’re beautiful, you know.”

James can feel the flush spreading across his cheeks, can feel his skin heat in response to every one of Teddy’s touches. He’s waited years for this. He’s waited a lifetime for this.

“Teddy, fuck me, please.” James sounds desperate, but he can’t be arsed to care. “I need you inside of me.”

Teddy pauses, his eyes – blown wide with lust – finding James’. “Are you sure?”

“Teddy, I’ve been sure; I’ve always been sure when it comes to you.”

James lifts his hips and Teddy eases off his pants, before removing his own, the last barriers between their skin. He conjures lube, slowing inching his fingers into James. By the time he pushes his cock past the tight ring of muscle, James is a sweaty mess, begging and writhing beneath him.

* * *

James told Teddy he loved him when he was eighteen. It was horrible timing – Teddy has barely broken up with Vic, but James was tired of waiting, tired of holding his feelings so close to his own chest.

He finished his declaration of love by saying, quietly, “I’m yours, Ted. If you’ll have me.”

Teddy had looked at him, his gaze shrewd, and shook his head. “No, James, you can’t love me.”

James heart broke for the second time.

“Jamie, c’mon, you’re better than me. You’re going to be the youngest professional seeker in over a century, you’re gorgeous and wonderful – you don’t want to be tied to a layabout professor like me.”

James could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, and he turned and walked away before Teddy could see.

They didn’t speak for a while after that, and the next time they did, James had to congratulate Teddy on his new relationship. Some bloke he met in Hogsmeade.

They both knew James didn’t mean it.

* * *

In the morning, Teddy makes breakfast. James’ arse hurts, but it’s a good sort of hurt.

It’s a reminder that what they did last night was real. When James wakes, for a moment he’s unsure how to act, but Teddy appears with a tray of food and gives him a filthy kiss good morning.

At James’ look of confusion when he pulls back, Teddy smiles. “You think now that I have you, I’m going to let you go?”

James feels his face break into a smile.

“You’re mine, James Sirius Potter. Mine. And I’m yours, for as long as you’ll have me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Drabbles and other nonsense can be found on my [Tumblr](https://all-drarry-to-me.tumblr.com).


End file.
